Geographic Indications

By François Verdeaux, Research Director at the Institut de la Recherche pour le Developpement

Geographical Indications (GIs) are denominations or, in other terms, appellations used to designate or "indicate" the geographical origin of a product. Concurrently, they secure a link between the product's quality or any of its other properties – even its mere reputation – and an "original" area or territory. Hence, by attributing to a product the name of a location or, more frequently, of a region, one seeks to identify it as unique and specific.

Once such a link is acknowledged, it is protected insofar as it represents an "intellectual property right". In some respects, it is similar to an "author's right", but of a very particular kind indeed – since, in certain types of geographical indications, the place of origin is considered as the co-author of the product just as much as the people who produce it.

On a worldwide scale, there are different legal GI protection instruments: they differ according to how strongly they link the product's qualities or properties to the geographical area where it is developed.

Thus, two GI protection instruments co-exist in the current European Union system, and they define the range and boundaries of potential solutions in this respect.

The first designation, the "Protected Geographical Indication" (PGI), is the more extensive. It links an agricultural good or a foodstuff to an area (frequently a region, more seldom a whole country). This covers the general definition of Geographical Indications in the TRIPS agreements (Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, article 22) concluded by the World Trade Organisation (WTO): « Geographical indications are, for the purposes of this Agreement, indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.».

The second appellation, the « Protected Designation of Origin» (PDO), is designed for a special type of Geographical Indications. It establishes a very close link between a good and a locality. It's production as well as it's processing and development must take place in a strictly defined geographic area. The production process is laid out in specifications which the producers must comply with, and their professional union or association must warrant such compliance. All the characteristics of the good and its main qualities are considered as a result of an interaction between its natural properties (ecological, varietal...) and the human practice invested in its output (know-how and organisation). The local origin thereby defined is called in French un terroir ("native soil"): it is not merely a geographical and ecological concept, but also an anthropological location, a practical as well as symbolical construction of a spatial entity (with its resources) by a group which identifies with that entity. The PDO protects that unique relation – rather than a given variety or species belonging to a specific environment, or merely the producers' know-how.

Hence, it is perfectly relevant that this type of geographic indication involves the particular intellectual property right mentioned above: owing to the tight link between the product and the region, the latter becomes a kind of "co-author" of the good, and this generates a three-fold right: collective, inalienable and imprescriptible. Thus it is quite different from legal instruments designed to protect trademarks or "brands". Such protective tools used in other GI protection systems than the European one, authorise sales operations but disappear with the group or the firm that created the good.

1-See Laurence Bérard et Philippe Marchenay 2006. Biodiversité culturelle, productions localisées et indications géographiques in 3ème colloque international du réseau SYAL “Systèmes Agroalimentaires Localisés”Alimentation et Territoires « Alter 2006 », Baeza, 18-21 octobre 2006

2-See Hermitte Marie Angèle 2001  « Les appellations d’origine dans la genèse des droits de propriété intellectuelle » dans Etudes et Recherches sur les Systèmes Agraires, P. Maïzi-Moity, C. de Sainte Marie, P. Geslin, D. Sautier,
J. Muchnik (éds) , 2001, 32 :195-207